Identification of preferred combination of factors in manufacturing bioepoxy/clay nanocomposites

Abstract

The current study aims to identify the preferred combination of factors for manufacturing bioepoxy/clay nanocomposites based on epoxidised soybean oil (ESO), including material formulation and manufacturing parameters for maximising tensile strengths of nanocomposites according to Taguchi design of experiments (DoEs). A Taguchi mixed-level DoEs with an L ₁₆ orthogonal array was selected. The response was set to achieve the maximum tensile strengths of nanocomposites with a preferred combination of factors determined by the Pareto analysis of variance (ANOVA). The associated results revealed that the ESO content was found to be the most significant factor with a contribution percentage of 66.63% amongst nine factors investigated. This result was followed by two less significant factors, namely mechanical mixing speed and clay content with contribution percentages of 19.09 and 7.01%, respectively. However, other factors of clay type, curing agent type, mechanical mixing temperature and time, as well as sonication frequency and time, were categorised as non-significant factors from the manufacturing and economical point of view. A confirmation test was conducted based on the preferred combination of factors showing good agreement with statistically predicted results.

Keywords:

• bioepoxy/clay nanocomposites
• Taguchi design of experiments (DoEs)
• mechanical properties
• morphological structures

Acknowledgement

H. Salam gratefully acknowledges the Directorate General of Resources for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of Indonesia, Government of Republic Indonesia, to grant him a PhD scholarship (Reference No. 4866/ E4.4/K/635 2013).